Transit-Accessible Hikes Near Vancouver

Posted by on

Lots of people in Vancouver don’t have access to a car. Owning a vehicle can be expensive and if you live downtown, you don’t really need one. While very freeing, I totally get it. This city is already hella expensive so who needs the added expense, amirite? Fret not, dear hiker friends. This city is home to so many transit-accessible hikes near Vancouver. Read on below for a list of them.

No Transit? No Problem!

Looking to go where transit doesn’t go? While it’s super sucky that our silly city won’t allow Uber, Vancouver is still home to some awesome car-sharing car co-op programs like Car2Go, EVO, Modo and ZipCar. We also have lots of great rental car places like Budget. You can search for the best rental car rates here via Booking.com. Worried about sharing costs? I use a great payment co-sharing feature called Money Pool by PayPal.

Vancouver Public Transit

Translink is Vancouver’s public transit system. It includes busses, skytrains and sea busses. They go everywhere northwest to Horseshoe Bay, north all along the North Shore, and over east to the Tri-Cities (Port Moody, Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam), and south to the Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Our lines connect you even farther to other transit systems like BC Ferries out of Horseshoe Bay connecting you to Bowen Island, the Sunshine Coast (Langdale/Gibson’s) and Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, and also out of Tsawwassen connecting you to Victoria on Vancouver Island and the southern Gulf Islands – all of which (with the exception of some Gulf Islands) have their own transit systems taking you even farther into those places. The options are endless! Visit Translink’s TripPlanning to plan your route.

Transit to Other Regions

North Shore Mountains

While our transit system will take you to lots of trails with trailheads within the city, the only North Shore mountain Vancouver transit will take you to is Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver. It does not go up to Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver or Seymour Mountain in North Vancouver. Both do have their own private paid shuttles you can take though. The link for the Seymour shuttle is http://mtseymour.ca/shuttle-bus and Cypress shuttle is http://cypresscoachlines.com/.

Sea To Sky

You can not take public transit to some epic places like Garibaldi Provincial Park in Squamish, or Joffre Lakes in Pemberton, but you can take other modes of transit. ParkBus is a relatively new service in partnership with BC Parks to help make our parks more accessible. While it’s a bit pricey, it’s a great option to get from Vancouver to some popular destinations for people who can’t get access to their own vehicle. It goes to the trailheads of places like Garibaldi Lake, Joffre Lakes, Golden Ears and The Chief. Livv Adventures also offers a bus service to these places on weekdays and weekends!

Our tried and true long-distance bus company Greyhound will take you to major destinations within BC and beyond.

Public Transit-Accessible Trails near Vancouver

You can search my extensive lists of hikes near Vancouver at http://hikesnearvancouver.ca/hiking-trails/all-hikes/ In the table you can click on the “Transit-Accessible” column heading to sort the table to display all transit-accessible hikes. You can also toggle for things like dog-friendly trails too!

The list of transit-accessible hikes is way too long but here are some awesome ones off the top of my head: